The Afterlives: A Novel

Author: Pierce, Thomas

Edition: First Edition

Number Of Pages: 384

Details:

“Ridiculously good” (The New York Times) author Thomas Pierce's debut novel is a funny, poignant love story that answers the question: What happens after we die? (Lots of stuff, it turns out). Jim Byrd died. Technically. For a few minutes. The diagnosis: heart attack at age thirty. Revived with no memory of any tunnels, lights, or angels, Jim wonders what--if anything--awaits us on the other side.  Then a ghost shows up. Maybe. Jim and his new wife, Annie, find themselves tangling with holograms, psychics, messages from the beyond, and a machine that connects the living and the dead. As Jim and Annie journey through history and fumble through faith, they confront the specter of loss that looms for anyone who dares to fall in love. Funny, fiercely original, and gracefully moving,  The Afterlives will haunt you. In a good way.

Reviews:

"In Thomas Pierce’s warm and inventive debut novel, The Afterlives, reality is slippery, time is out of joint and profound disorientation is a feature of daily existence. In other words, pretty much how the world feels to a lot of us right now... Pierce is brilliant at painting an entire life

— encompassing passion, missed opportunities, tragedy — in a few pages. He also isn’t afraid to pose the biggest questions: How do we deal with loss? What are the limits and possibilities of love? What is the nature of time? In

The Afterlives, Pierce has worked a similar magic, connecting us to fictional characters who seem, somehow, 100 percent real." 

— New York Times Book Review

“[A] touching, thought-provoking debut novel… Part love story and part speculative sci-fi, it’s a meandering, albeit meaningful, look at marriage, technology and ghosts.”

— USA Today

"Fascinating... [Pierce’s] work has a quirky sensibility that recalls Lorrie Moore or George Saunders, an ability to bring the unquestionably weird into the path of daily life without ever seeming forced.… A fluid, funny writer." 

— Financial Times

“Like his previous book, the short story collection  Hall of Small Mammals, it's richly imaginative, quirky but not twee, and the work of an author who's determined to find the surreal behind the ordinary… [A] deeply generous, compassionate book that asks its readers to open their hearts and treat one another with understanding, even as the world grows more complicated, and more unknowable, every day.”

— NPR

“Excellent…  The Afterlives is sprinkled with ‘Black Mirror’-style futuristic touches...  The Afterlives is as much a dialogue and an attempt at reconciliation between faith and science as it is a contemplation of the opportunities of second chances.”

— Salon

“I was enchanted by [Pierce’s] thoughtful ruminations and wry comments about church and spirituality. Intercalary chapters about the haunted house’s original residents vibrate with ectoplastic energy."

— The Washington Post

“Thomas Pierce's humorous yet heartfelt debut novel  The Afterlives is one man's journey to discover what happens after death… A unique and thought-provoking read.”

— Buzzfeed

"Quirky, hilarious, and heartrending." 

— Marie Claire

“[W]ill both haunt you and make you laugh.”

— Garden & Gun

“[U]tterly human (and hilarious), prodding some of life’s biggest mysteries to see what truths shake loose.” 

— Men's Journal

“This tender debut novel from Thomas Pierce explores what awaits us in the afterlife… This thought-provoking debut will make readers think about love, loss, and what happens after we die.” 

— Real Simple

“Thomas Pierce's debut novel, The Afterlives, is a pleasant case of a ghost story… it delivers a satisfying rendering of what that supernatural world might be like, while preserving the sense of mystery that draws us to such yarns in the first place… Pierce, like every ghost-story writer, knows we crave an unreality to match the humdrum real world we're stuck in. Unlike many, though, he grasps that we chase that tension not to cross into some

"other side" but to feel steadier on ...

EAN: 9781594632532

Release Date: 09-01-2018

Languages: English

Item Note: Good shape with typical wear. Has a remainder mark. Hardcover Used - Very Good Ships fast! 2018First Edition

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood

Binding: Hardcover